FOR a man who enjoys relaxing with a game of cards in his spare time, Rafa Benitez hardly gave the impression that he had lost the aces in his pack yesterday.

While some managers find it impossible to disguise their feelings when deprived of key players in big games, you would never have thought Benitez had just discovered Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres would spend the weekend at home as he faced the press.

Travelling to a buoyant Sunderland side with a fit Gerrard and Torres would have been hard enough, so it is easy to see how much more difficult things will be for Liverpool without their goalscoring talisman and inspirational captain on Wearside.

But as any good poker player knows, it pays never to reveal your emotions and the enigmatic smile Benitez delivered as he relayed the message about Gerrard and Torres suggested he would not be losing too much sleep.

The opposite, of course, might be true. Benitez might have spent last night pacing the floors of his hotel room, worrying about where the striking threat or midfield dynamism would come from and few would have blamed him if that had been the case.

Take a look back through the record books, however, and you will see that Benitez has a habit of masterminding positive results out of difficult circumstances – think Juventus in April 2005 and Manchester United last September. So while Gerrard and Torres convalesce this weekend, getting themselves ready to play starring roles against Lyon and United in the next seven days, Benitez wants to see those who are thrust into the spotlight take over their mantle.

“It’s very early days (in the title race),” said Benitez. “It’s better to be six points ahead but the main thing is to keep going, keep working and keep doing things properly. We will see. I am sure we will improve. You have not seen the best of our players.

“Would I take a draw (against Sunderland)? No. Not really. We are always thinking about taking three points from every single game. This one will be the same. We might not have Gerrard or Torres but we have Babel, Kuyt, a lot of options up front.”

Only Benitez will know what tweaks he intends making to his starting line-up but it seems tweaks is all that he has been dealing with in the past week, as another heavy round of international fixtures have taken a toll.

Aside from Gerrard and Torres returning with adductor problems, Dirk Kuyt came back from Holland’s game with Australia with an ankle knock, while Emiliano Insua, Javier Mascherano and Lucas have been forced to battle with jetlag.

Clearly these international breaks are the bane of a club manager’s life but even though it has bordered on the impossible to prepare thoroughly for the test at the Stadium Of Light, the Reds’ boss does not want to start making excuses.

“I think we have enough quality in the squad, so we have to manage,” he said. “Maybe we will play with different players or in a different way. Still we have confidence that we have quality in the squad. That is the situation.

“We have a lot of internationals here and it is more difficult to keep them fit but we will see how we can manage. We knew that this game could be very difficult, playing away on a Saturday after an international break. It is a difficult fixture.

“Now it is going to be more difficult but we maybe have to show more character and more quality. The main thing for us is to do our things properly. We have to play our game and make sure we control the key players of the other team.

“In some ways this game has been impossible to prepare for – Mascherano, Lucas and Insua have all been away. We have been waiting for them but maybe after the next international break we will be playing much better. We will improve.”

A defiant statement with which Jamie Carragher agrees; once Liverpool find the happy medium of scoring freely and defending miserly, the vastly-experienced defender is confident they will dash back into the title race.

“We’re right up there with the best when it comes to scoring,” said Carragher. “Now we’ve got to get the balance right. We haven’t started as well as we would have liked but it’s not been as bad as some people are making out. It’s not a massive gap. I’m sure we can cut it. It was six points the other week but by the time we played Chelsea it was three. If we’d have beaten them then we would have been joint top.”

Carragher has found himself coming under fire from certain critics and has offered a scathing assessment of his own form but Benitez has no worries about whether Father Time is catching up on a man who is close to making his 600th Liverpool appearance.

The 31-year-old will take possession of the armband in Gerrard’s absence and Benitez expects Carragher to lead by example in a game in which some neutrals will be expecting the Reds to slip up.

“Carra physically is okay,” said Benitez. “That is not a problem. People are saying ‘oh his age! oh his legs!’ but that is not the case. It is a question of confidence. When you make mistakes, normally the centre-backs and the keeper suffer more than the others.

“I’m sure now with more competition, with Carra, Skrtel and Agger fit, it will be better for the team. Players with character have to show this when they are under pressure. The only way to change things is to be on the pitch and prove that you are right.”